Track Takes on Ocean Breeze

This Sunday, the Indoor Track team competed in its first individual meet of the season. All meets prior had been solely relay competitions. Perhaps there was no better way to start off the individual season than at the state of the art facility of Ocean Breeze, easily a fan and athlete favorite for NJ Indoor Track. The $93 million facility just opened in 2015 and has many features, such as a large board for live timing of each race, film of every event, a 55m straightaway in the infield for maximized efficiency, and a long jump. The Rams definitely showed up. 

First off was Jack Stickler, Evan O’Dowd, Jude Morgan, and John Chacon in the quick but ever-popular 55m dash. Despite being their first time running in this particular event, all athletes stepped up to the plate. 

Next off was Sam DeMarinis, Jack Maenpaa, Evan O’Dowd, and Patrick Milton in the 300m. The 300m, seemingly a perfect balance between the loved but a little brief 200m and the ever-dreaded 400m, was an event that Oratory especially showed their competitiveness in. Special shoutout to Sam DeMarninis throwing down a HUGE 40 seconds in the 300m putting him in second place in his heat. 

After the 300m came the 600m, another rather unusual event that seems to be the balance between the anaerobic 400m and the mainly aerobic 800. The result? Lots of runners that were hurting. There were multiple runners that practically collapsed at the finish of this event because of the fatigue. This was not the case for Max Russo, who dropped a 1:27, finishing second in his heat and sixth out of ALL runners at the meet. 

As the meet progressed, it moved more towards the distance side of things, with the first true distance event being the 1000m. Declan Mann took on this one solo, clocking in his first-ever high school 1000m with a time of 3:14, a time that named him the performer of the meet for the Oratory squad. Also important to mention is that he had the second-fastest time of any freshman running in that event. 

After the 1000m, the fan-favorite distance event (the 1600m) was up, and Aidan Philbrick also headed into this one solo. He ran a solid performance, especially for such a big jump in distance, as his previous event had been a 400m sprint. 

On the throwing side of things, Oratory Showed up, with Matt Enderrly finishing 12th overall in the throwing. 

Overall, the meet was a great showing and a great experience for OP indoor track.